


What We Leave Behind

by TheDruidsMuse



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Grace Bonds, Kid Fic, Loss, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-20
Packaged: 2019-03-18 11:47:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 20,413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13681065
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDruidsMuse/pseuds/TheDruidsMuse
Summary: After having lost their parents, the Winchester children have found a way to carry on, to be content with their lives. That is... until the greatest threat against their lives nearly overwhelms them and they're thrown back into the chaos. With what they yearn for so close at hand, how can they go back to their old lives knowing that it'll all be stripped from them once again?





	1. Won't You Take Me Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If i miss any tags or warnings please let me know... Im little miss new to the writing fanfiction game. Hope you enjoy! ^.^

“Remnants of The Legion” they’d called themselves. Ha! More like half starved dogs salivating over a steak just within reach. They’d called us, my siblings and cousins and I, “abominations.” Us! Children born of love and happiness.

  
I had laughed at them as they surrounded Bobby, my eldest cousin, and me in a cemetery just outside of Lawrence, Kansas. The laughter hid my fear, regret, and relief. Fear that this would be my last battle, that I’d never see my family again. Regret that Bobby would die here too. Relief that our siblings were safe, locked away in the bunker-hidden to all. 

  
Bobby and I had automatically stood back to back, giving us the 360 visual, while the angels began to circle us. I gathered my long dirty blonde hair into a tight ponytail and popped a cherry sucker into my mouth. It was always better to have sugar on my tongue as I spilled blood, kept my stomach from revolting.

  
Slowly, Bobby and I drew our angel blades, one of mine having belonged to my angelic parent, and waited for the rabid angels to pounce. The air was tense with anticipation as the summer sun beat down on us. My body tensed, coiled in on itself like a snake getting ready to strike. I knew this dance. The angels having rehearsed with us often enough. 

  
They had waited, as they always did, for the two of us to show our faces in supermarkets. They knew that we were nearby but could never find us with the bunker hiding us and all. 

  
I rolled the sucker round my mouth and grinned causing the tension to snap and angels to leap at us. Uncle Cas had shown us how to fight them before he too had died. Our blades became streaks of heavenly silver in the high sun. 

  
Our instruction came back to me in the second before our opponents struck. Castiel’s urgent but patient tone. He’d known how vital it all would be. _Keep a clear head so that you can think but not so hard that you falter. Find their weakness and exploit-where are they leaving themselves open? Know when to attack and when to defend. When surrounded, you need to heighten your awareness but not so much that it becomes overwhelming or that you create a tunnel of focus. _I had soaked it all in because he always added, “it was your papa that taught me.”__

____

  
An instant later, the angels reached us. Bobby and I parried and blocked and stabbed and sliced. The sharp clang of metal echoed throughout the cemetery, mixed with grunts and screams and crumbling headstones and flashes of light. Bobby and I hissed whenever one of their blades managed to slice into our skin. 

  
Dozens of angels versus the two of us… I knew for sure that we were dead and I realized that I’d be the first when an angel launched himself at me in a tackling maneuver. Being who I was, however, I merely stumbled back a couple of steps and ended up blinking against… the dark sky?

  
I sensed two angels around me instead of the dozens and quickly dispatched of the closest one as he was still trying to slit my throat. I returned to my defensive position, raising my blades, and turning round until I spotted the last one. I was in a much different cemetery than the one in Kansas and much colder. Spotting the last angel was easy, even in the dead of night. He stood over a freshly re-dug grave that was engulfed in flames. Two human men stood at his sides with their weapons drawn.

  
I was in the past… staring at my dad and my uncles, Dean and Castiel. They in turn stared at me, their jaws tense. I lowered my blades and opened my mouth to say something when Bobby popped into the graveyard to my left with an angel blade in his gut.

  
Sheathing my blades and spitting out the sucker, I ran to him, catching his falling frame.

  
“Bobby!” Even I could hear the panic and shock in my voice-not recommended for when you need to reassure someone. I cupped his pain stricken face. “Bobby, I’m gonna fix this, ok?”

  
“How?” he grunted, a cynical smile replacing the pain. “It’s an angel blade.”

  
“I am the daughter of an archangel,” I told him. “If I can’t fix this I might as well turn in my wings for being so damn useless.” He let out a soft chuckle but nodded his approval. I gripped the blade’s handle, saying, “on three, alright?” another nod. “one… two-” and I ripped it out, placing my free hand over the wound.

  
I ignored his scream and concentrated on healing him. The golden glow from my eyes as my grace coursed through me lit up his face. His once pained face was blessedly relaxed and soft. It didn’t take long for the physical damage from the blade to repair itself but his grace had been affected and he’d need time to recover before engaging in another fight. I let my power slip back and the glow faded from my eyes.

  
That’s when an unwelcome voice rang though the night. “Ah, so you’re the familiar hum of grace I felt.”

  
I was on my feet, blades drawn, and practically snarling at the new-comer. My grace swirled close to the surface, my eyes glowing as I growled, “you!”

  
The angel held his hands up, slight concern showing on his face. “Have we met?”

  
Bobby placed his hand on my shoulder. “Charlie, it’s not him. He doesn’t know, cousin.”

  
I eyed the shorter angel with his blond hair-just like I remembered-and his golden eyes full of mischief-just like I remembered-and his stupid jacket, the one I secretly kept, and his stupid smirk and his stupid form. “I hate you.” My voice had been low but I’d spoken with enough conviction that it made the angel flinch. I stowed my blades and let the power go dormant again.

  
“Gabriel, what’s going on here?”

  
I snapped my head around to take in my long-dead dad. He was still impossibly tall and perfect… just the way I remembered and I loved him for it. 

  
“These kids don’t belong here.”

  
“What year are we in?” I asked, mainly so that my dad, Sam, would look at me.

  
He blessed me, turning his attention to me. “2018. What year are you from?”

  
“20-”

  
“Don’t answer that,” Gabriel interrupted me.

  
I glared angel blades at him. “They’ve time traveled before,” I snapped. “They can handle it and no amount of information will alter the timeline, they’ve tried that before too.”

  
Gabriel shrugged. “You’ll ruin the surprise, kiddo.”

  
Bobby took a step forward, ever his papa’s son, with a gentle voice and a level head. “Not much by revealing our year.” He turned to Sam and said, “2049.”

  
“So the world’s still in one piece. Good to know.” Dean nodded in approval. 

  
“We need to go, Bobby. The others are waiting.” If we stayed any longer, I wouldn't want to leave. I offered him my hand and, just as he took it, a group of kids popped into existence behind him. “What the hell? Mary?”

  
I released his hand to hug my eldest female cousin and best friend-aside from Bobby, of course. When we parted, I took a count and found only my cousins before me. Icy fear blossomed in my chest. _Where are my siblings? ___

____

  
“Wait.” Mary grabbed my arm, her eyes going wide as she took in the group of men and angels before us. “Is that-?” She cut herself off, tears welling up in her eyes.

  
“Yes, they are but not yet. They don’t know. You understand?”

  
Mary nodded, her dark hair swaying with the motion, tears sliding silently down her cheeks. Then my fears were relieved. My siblings appeared next to us. 

  
“Charlie!” My sisters cried and nearly tackled me in hugs.

  
“Where did all of these kids come from?” Sam asked his brother.

  
_“The loins of you Winchesters,” _I had wanted to say but then I realized that I didn’t really want to think about that. _Eww, parental sex. _I settled for a safer approach that required a lot less brain bleach.____

_____ _

  
“I don’t know how we all got here. I didn’t do it and I don’t know anyone else with that kind of mojo.”

  
“Wait.” Dean held up his hand, disbelief etched into his features. “You have that kind of juice? You said you were a nephilim? I mean, you said ‘daughter of-’” 

  
“Yes, I am a nephilim but like I said, archangel.” _Do not look at him, do not look at him, _I chanted to myself. “We tend to get stronger than our angelic parent. That’s probably why we’re labeled the way we are.”__

____

  
“And the others? Your… cousins, did you say?” Dean still looked skeptical. 

  
“Technically all nephilim are cousins with angels being the ‘sons of God’ and all. But they have a seraph parent, stronger than your run-of-the-mill angel but still not an archangel.”

  
Dean thought about it for a second, bobbing his head in the way he did when he was considering something. It was Sam that spoke next. “Alright. So how do we get-”

  
Members of the Remnant from our future started popping up behind our group. “You cannot run from us-”

  
“Yes,” I snapped, “because you are many and I am an abomination. I got it the first time.” To my siblings and cousins, I whispered, “go. Stand with your fathers.”

  
Mary grabbed my arm again. “I can fight.”

  
“I need you to protect the kids. If they get through me, they’re yours.” My words pacified her and she ran off.

  
Bobby started to ready himself for the fight but I zapped him over to his papa and said, “Cas, hold him. He’s not ready to fight.” To my utter astonishment, Cas bear hugged his son, keeping him from rushing forward.

  
“So, what?” Sam asked me. “You’re gonna fight this growing mob alone?”

  
I unwrapped another sucker, grinning, and announced, “I am the daughter of an archangel and a Winchester. These pathetic angels should be trembling in fear and fleeing!”

  
Sweet cherry rolled around my mouth as I reached for my papa’s blade. My family was now in imminent danger, there would be no holding back-I was relenting control of my powers. The Remnants stood before me and I was the only thing standing between death and everyone in the world that I loved. 

  
Power surged and swirled through me. The cemetery was almost fully lit up as my eyes shone and my wings unfurled, shinning gold and silver. It was the transformation of the archangel blade as my grace surged through it that really surprised everyone. The blade pushed forward looking more like a sword than the original. The pommel grew into a staff-like length tipped with a smaller blade. As if the blade’s transformation didn’t look deadly enough, it’s color began to swirl like liquid gold though the weapon remained solid. 

  
My grin turned feral as I tested the weight and balance of the new weapon by swinging it back and forth and twirling it. Working on instinct, I changed my stance and readied myself. The Remnants hesitated, eyeing the sword as if they’d seen it before. I knew what the weapon was but couldn't quite put my finger on how I knew.

  
“Ready or not,” I said in a sing-song voice and then charged the mob of angels.

  
My rage, I think, was the only thing that got me through the melee. Where there had been a few dozen angels earlier this… this was more. Perhaps even every last angel in the Legion, each one fighting like a madman and each one cut down by my sword. My sword… the true sword of the Archangel Gabriel, messenger of God. 

  
Halfway through the battle, I realized, _this is why the nephilim are forbidden. _But I pushed the thought down and swung the sword.__

____

  
At some point, the Remnants smartened up and revealed their wings to use as shields, something that I had never thought to try. But then, I did think and figured out, through a quick experiment, that they could also be used as weapons-the edge of each feather as sharp as any sword, while as a whole they were as resilient as any shield.

  
Thus, rustling feathers and deep rumbling thumps, like stone against stone, added to the sounds of the battle. Silver angel blades, multiple shades of angelic wings, and the sword of Gabriel all blurred around me as we danced. My wings ended up blocking blows from one side-sometimes locking our feathers together-and slicing through angels on the other side, all whilst I defended and attacked the advance in front of me. 

  
Once they managed to surround me completely, I locked my wings, bent, and spun, cutting through a circle of the bastards who meant to kill my family. But that trick only worked once and I was back to attack and defend.

  
When the last angel was struck down and he flashed out of existence, the calm confused me. Rage still boiled explosively in my chest. My eyes darted around searching and searching but there was nothing to find and I didn’t know how to put the beast to sleep. I screamed my rage to the heavens, pacing among the dead angels and the wings burnt into the ground. I paced and snarled.

  
A face suddenly appeared in my vision and I rejoiced for another being to strike down but stopped. _I knew this face. No, I _know _him. _____

__

____

  
The man flinched but his hands were raised in surrender and empty and he was speaking. I cocked my head and tuned into his words.

  
“Charlie,” the man said soothingly, “It’s all over now. Charlie? Can you hear me?” My nod was jerky but it made him smile and my heart melt. I missed that smile. “You have to let go. Let it go and come back. Your sisters are waiting for you. Let it go.” His smile was gone and I wanted it back.

  
“I don’t know how, daddy.” My voice was small and broken and my vision started to blur.

  
“Drop the sword. Can you do that for me, Charlie?”

  
My fingers shook around the weapon as I tried to will them open. I grunted in frustration and scrubbed the wetness from my eyes. _How dare my hand not obey me! ___

____

  
“Come on, Charlie. You can do this.” 

  
My father’s words were gentle and patient and so like what I remembered that the blade fell from my hand and landed with a soft thump in the grass. His face lit up with a blinding smile and he held out his arms in invitation.

  
I rushed into them, careful to keep my wings clear of him. Warmth and love flooded my system. I thought that I had loved my father before but this… this was almost indescribable. This man, a year or so before he and my papa even get together, had accepted me as his daughter and showed me such compassion that I hadn’t seen in years.

  
This was love, unconditional and pure.

  
Overwhelmed by this, I started to cry into his chest and he let me. He held me tighter and rubbed circles into my back until my wings furled back up and I had control once more. I reigned in my emotions and slowly pushed out of his reach, shame coloring my cheeks. Wonderfully enough, he didn’t seem bothered by it. He simply smiled and said, “welcome back.”

  
Thanking the stars that night was still upon us to hide most of the color in my cheeks, I gave him a small smile and retrieved my fallen blade that had taken its old form. I turned my head heavenward, taking no pleasure in the words that came next.

  
“To the Legion of heaven, hear me now! Come and collect your future corpses. Know that I am Charlie Winchester, daughter of the Archangel Gabriel, and I have slain those who would do harm to my family. Know that should you choose this moment to rethink and abandon that decision in the future then your corpses shall fade and you shall carry on with your existence. If not, then you have only thirty one years of existence left. Choose wisely.”

  
I finished the prayer/threat and stalked back to my sisters who hugged me fiercely. I set them free and looked over my family. I could feel angels popping in, snatching their future bodies, and popping back out but I ignored them. Bobby, now free from his papa, was glaring daggers at me. I waved him over and he marched his way to my side, turning to stand with me facing our family.

  
“That was-”

  
“Stupid, reckless, unnecessary,” I finished for him. “Yes, I know. You say that after every fight no matter how it pans out.”

  
“Doesn’t make it any less true.” Bobby paused for a moment then added, “jerk.”

  
“Bitch.” We scowled at each other and then burst into laughter.

  
“Charlie!” My dad yelled his warning a split second before the worst, searing pain sliced and pushed its way through my rib cage, missing my heart by a centimeter.

  
I gave an aborted scream, clenching my teeth together, and squeezing my eyes shut. A flash of bright light tinted my blocked vision red and faded quickly. Each breath felt like fire filling my lungs. The jolt of hitting my knees caused a whine to slip through my teeth and Bobby’s arms to close around me.

  
“Charlie!”

  
I opened my eyes. Bobby was already crying and I was already kicking myself for my next plea. “Gabriel.” Only my papa could save me from this, regardless of how I felt.

  
“Oh, now you don’t ‘hate’ me?”

  
I smiled. “I still hate you but I’m-” I paused to cough up blood in the most painful way possible. White dots danced in my vision. “I’ve been protecting your children since I was eight and you abandoned us. The least our dead-beat-papa could do is put me back together.”

  
He quirked an eyebrow. “Is that so?”

  
“Gabriel,” Sam said in a warning tone.

  
“What, Samsquatch?”

  
My dad whispered in my papa’s ear, “that girl is my daughter too and if you let her die I will kill you.”

  
I smirked at my papa’s surprise. Didn’t matter how many times I had declared who I was, the truth hadn’t quite clicked for him until now. He grunted at my expression but knelt behind me.

  
“I’ll do this, but I need you to show me what happened,” he whispered to me.

  
Blood drooled from the corners of my widened grin. I labored to say, “luckily for you, I didn’t listen to you that day. I saw it all.”

  
He chuckled softly, “that’s my girl. Now rest,” and my world went black as dawn broke over the graveyard.


	2. Dream On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bobby's perspective

_We’re dead, _I thought, hysterically, _we’re dead and she’s laughing! I pray to you Castiel! Papa, please! _I shouted my thoughts. _I pray unto you, mighty archangel Gabriel! We’re in deep this time, Uncle Gabe! Please! Please, I’m begging you! Come back! _______

  
Nothing.

  
There never is.

  
I could smell the cherry sucker as Charlie unwrapped it and we drew our blades. I’m not the warrior that she is. All I could see past my fear was a landscape that I’d kill to put on canvas and if I ever wanted to I’d have to stand here and do just that: kill. I find it more distasteful than either Charlie or my sister Mary-she’s more like our dad, the warrior.

  
Charlie rolled the sucker around her mouth and the angels charged. The battle had me ducking and dodging and stabbing and slicing. All I could hear was the blood pumping in my ears. My chest and stomach were frozen with fear as adrenaline and exertion overheated the rest of me. One wrong move and I’d never get to see what’s left of my family ever again. So I pushed through.

  
An angel tried to tackle Charlie and they blinked away-gone. I faltered, like missing a “step down” sign, and nearly crumbled to the ground. Ice swirled up my spine and I got a white-hot blade through the gut before being surrounded by darkness. Charlie was here.

  
_I knew it! We’re dead! _I lamented to myself as she touched my face.__

____

  
Then Charlie was healing my wound and her papa-but not-shows up. For a moment, I really think that she might attack him, despite lying every time she says she hates him. I glanced over at my parent’s past selves and look away, trying not to look any longer. These men didn’t know me yet, my parents are dead. No sense in even hoping. 

  
Once the kids showed up followed by the Remnants, my fear came back. Now, we’d all die but being the eldest meant that it’s my responsibility to do everything in my power to spare the young ones. I never got the chance, however. My papa restrained me.

  
I watched, helplessly, as Charlie lost control- _let go _of her control-and became, what God and the angels had feared of such children, a savage nephilim. Radiating golden light and wild power, she swept through their ranks like they were fleas. This should have been me. I was the oldest. But she will always be the strongest.__

____

  
With the opposing host neutralized, Charlie started pacing, searching for her next victim. Her control wasn’t returning. 

  
“Sam!” I called to her dad, shivering against the fear in my chest and struggling against my papa’s iron grip. “You need to calm her down!”

  
He looked at me incredulously. “Calm her down? Do you see-?”

  
“You’re the only one here that she won’t kill!” And maybe that wasn’t _quite _true but his face would calm her down the fastest. “No time to explain but I swear you’re perfectly safe!”__

____

  
“Like hell, he’s going near angelzilla!” Dean, my dad, protested.

  
Cas released me and held him back. “Dean, I believe that he’s telling the truth. She claimed to be the daughter of a Winchester. Perhaps Sam is her human parent,” Cas reasoned and Dean tried-I mean, really _tried _, fish-out-of-water-mouth-gaping tried-but had no more to say on the matter.__

____  


  
I watched anxiously, unconsciously grabbing hold of the hem of Castiel’s trench coat, as Sam approached my grace-crazed cousin. If the angel noticed my gesture he allowed it, saying nothing. I only noticed when I marched over to Charlie-now calmed-with a lecture in mind. I opened my mouth only to watch an angel blade punch through her chest. 

  
Her half scream made my heart seize. On instinct, or maybe I was channeling her, I ripped my blade from its sheath and buried it in the angel before he could run. The angel burnt out as I got my arms around her and she called for her papa. I have to admit, that stung a bit.

  
I realized, only later while she was sleeping through the awkward “we know you from the future” shtick, recovering, that it had been the right thing for her to do. If she had trusted me to heal her, she would’ve ended up dead and I would have the guilt of taking yet another beloved person from her sisters.

  
No one was telling Dean that we were his but it was pretty obvious with the way we all look and how my siblings clung to him and, despite what some people might think, my dad’s a smart guy. Once it clicked, the man smiled so wide I thought that it would permanently split his face in half. He jostled my papa, like I remembered him doing, and pointed at my siblings with an excited, “look! I have babies!”

  
Uncle Sam entertained my two conscious cousins but kept himself in a chair next to the bed where Charlie lay. Uncle Gabriel sat in the corner behind Sam observing the chaos, like I did from the corner near the hotel windows. Occasionally, the eldest of Charlie’s siblings, Jessica, drifted toward the angel and he indulged her but she always returns to Sam.

  
Gabriel extended the hotel room with a snap of his fingers, adding a large dining table-complete with feast-and enough bunk beds to hold us all. I ate with my family but returned to my post as the kids filed off to bed. The adult’s conversation was a vague notion in the back of my head, broken by Cas gently touching my shoulder.

  
“We angels will keep watch,” he assured me.

  
“She hasn’t woken up,” I stated.

  
Gabriel stepped up behind my papa, saying, “she needs time. Her wound is healed and her grace is on the mend. I’ll watch her all night, bucko.” With that he took up his chair behind Sam.

  
“I know this may confuse you but can I hug you?” I asked Cas, quietly.

  
The angel did tilt his head and his eyebrows pulled together in confusion but he opened his arms as he had seen Sam do earlier. Cas returned the hug, whispering, “I do know that I am your angelic parent and that loved ones-family members-need and give hugs often. Dean and Sam have taught me that much,” in my ear. I released him with a, “thank you, papa,” and attempted to sleep.

  
When sleep, finally, took me it was restless and over far too soon. The force of nature that is my family was up bright and early and starving. Charlie was still asleep. Gabriel returned the room to its natural state as we filed out the door. I wanted to stay with Charlie but protecting the little ones came first, as Cas reminded me when I’d requested to stay.

  
The table grew silent around me in the diner, drawing my attention to Sam and Charlie. The lead in my chest evaporated as she worked her way through the ranks of siblings and cousins down to me. I hugged her for all that I was worth, trying to relay the one thing that I couldn’t say with the lump in my throat, “I missed you.”


	3. Why we lose

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie prays, "If you want to learn the truth, papa, come find me.

I woke slowly, lazily pulling myself up out of the warm hazy darkness. Opening my eyes caused a sigh of relief from my left. The fog in my brain continued to lift as I attempted to ask, “how long have I been out?” What came out was a slurred croak. I cleared my throat and repeated the question. The sigh had come from my dad, Sam.

  
“Little over twenty-four hours. Everyone’s gone to get breakfast.” 

  
I saw his face pink over when I turned my head. He scratched nervously at the back of his head. There were dark bags under his eyes that could only mean that he hadn’t slept.

  
“I didn’t feel comfortable just leaving a note.”

  
I sat up slowly, tentatively testing each muscle group. “You should have slept, daddy.” _Yeah… _I thought, cringing, _I should cut that down to ‘dad.’ _____

_____ _

  
He nodded. “I know. Just… well, accepting that you’re my future daughter means accepting parental responsibility while you’re here and that means watching over you.”

  
My face paled. “Please tell me that uncle Dean’s still in the dark. If he finds out like this, he’ll get stubborn and-”

  
“He figured it out all on his own. Pretty sure he’s still in shock.” Sam chuckled.

  
I groaned. “Now, he’ll never get with Uncle Cas.”

  
Sam laughed harder. “It’s not the Cas part that has him in shock, oddly enough. It’s the ‘I have a mountain of kids,’ that got him. He’s in his glory taking care of them. I wouldn’t be surprised if your cousins started to age because Dean decides to jump the gun… or rather Cas.”

  
“Ok. Ew. You’re over sharing.”

  
He smiled and dropped the subject. “How are you now?”

  
I did one last systems check and sighed. “Physically, I feel great but I feel drained. My grace is severely damaged.”

  
“Gabriel said you’d need some time to recharge your batteries.” He stood and offered me his hand. “Come on. Let’s get some grub.”

  
The small diner that we found the family in had pulled together several tables to accommodate their numbers. The staff had a shared look that basically read: they had better be leaving the biggest damn tip. With the unbelievable noise coming from the Winchester table, I couldn’t blame them. The table fell silent as we approached, all eyes on me or Sam.

  
“Sleeping beauty back in the land of the living!” Gabriel announced joyfully.

  
The archangel’s words broke my siblings and cousins out of their daze. I was suddenly bombarded with hugs, each one of them trying to climb over each other to get to me, and a cacophony of questions. I hugged each one of them like my life depended on it, leaving Bobby, my fighting partner, for last. His hug was crushing but warm and welcome.

  
“Still kicking then? Jerk.”

  
“Can’t get rid of me that easily.” I grinned and added. “Bitch.”

  
“Language!” Dean scolded.

  
I laughed, making my way over and hugging him. “You’re a few years too late for that Uncle Bean,” I whispered into his shoulder. Then I stood and to the table, said, “where do you think we learned it?”

  
With everyone back in their seats, a waitress, with a strained polite expression, took Sam’s and my orders. We all laughed and chatted and told jokes and poked at each other until we were done with our meals. Gabriel anted-up the money for the bill and tip-I checked to make sure that it was generous and my jaw nearly hit the floor. Only grandpa Chuck knew where Gabriel had gotten that kind of dough. 

  
Back at the hotel, everyone settled where they could, never slowing or stopping in conversation. I watched them all, leaning against the door and smiling. It was as if nothing had happened all those years ago, as if these were our parents. I knew we still had to go back to our time and it made this gathering a little bittersweet. 

  
“Here, I’ll show you how to play,” Bobby told Cas as he dealt up a game of rummy. “You’ll catch on quickly. You taught us all how to play, after all.”

  
I raised an eyebrow, wondering if this was one of those chicken and the egg debacles. I mean, if Cas taught Bobby back then and Bobby is teaching Cas right now… then who really taught who?… case and point.

  
Quietly, I got Sam’s attention and motioned that I was headed out for a walk. Concern etched into his features but he nodded and I slipped out of the room. The early afternoon was brisk but sunny. I strolled past the diner and across the street to a large, wooded park. I found a bench facing the lake in the center of the park, sat and leaned my head back, closing my eyes.

  
I whispered into the sun, “Hear my prayer, Archangel Gabriel… if you want to learn the truth, papa, come find me.”

  
I shivered as the breeze picked up and, using the pagan magic that my papa had inadvertently taught me, I snapped my fingers. A thick, comfortable jacket settled around my shoulders, already zipped up and warming me.

  
“You really are my daughter,” he said, sliding onto the bench next to me.

  
“I don’t hate you,” I told him, ignoring the pride in his statement. “I hate that I still love you after you abandoned us when daddy… died.” I choked out the last word. The destruction of my perfect world and the loss of my innocence-hell! The innocence of my sisters and cousins-at such a young age still hurt my heart.

  
“Show me.”

  
The sadness and anger in those words had me, finally, looking over at him. The seriousness in his face punched me in the gut. Papa had always been the playful one, the one ready for the next silly game in a string of silly games, always adding a touch of his trickster magic to make it all the more real and exciting. He’d even turned the living room floor into lava a time or two-pretend lava, obviously, but who could’ve figured that out at six years of age? Never, not once, was there a serious moment to be had in my short childhood. 

  
Decided, I slouched down and laid my head on his shoulder, making myself comfortable. After I closed my eyes, I said, “my mind is open to you.”

  
_You’re starting there? ___

____

  
The first memories I’d come to collect were faces and glimpses of the ceiling. I must’ve been passed around as most newborns are. Their words meant nothing but their tones were sweet and loving and their smiles were bright. These faces were mine and they loved me, fed me, rocked me.

  
First was papa’s, all golden eyed and mischievous and proud; then daddy’s, all teary eyed but happy; and my older brother, Mikey, all awestruck and silly. These faces were a constant… my life. Faces like Uncle Cas’, with his questioning expressions, and Uncle Bean’s, with daddy’s green eyes, were a treat. Eventually, Bobby’s small and chubby face was added to the “mine” list and then Mary’s, both kids with their dark hair and bright blue eyes.

  
_Yes, I’m starting there. Enjoy the show, kiddo. ___

____

  
Memories ended up in fast forward, for a minute, before he stopped to watch himself snap up the finest tea set for Mary and I. We wore tiny authentic ball gowns and real diamond tiaras. We giggled and danced around with a small white terrier and a large golden retriever, nearly upending the table. In the background, daddy was gently chiding papa for spoiling us but the love in his eyes as he spoke negated his words.

  
Fast forward, Mary and I were in a large pasture full of wildflowers and buzzing insects. A dark wolfhound puppy with too big ears lay on my lap. The two of us giggled watching Uncle Cas and little Bobby chasing butterflies and bees… then real honey still on the comb from one of Uncle Cas’ hives… 

  
Planting seeds with Mary because we wanted sunflowers and shooing Bear, my wolfhound puppy, when he tried to dig them all up… a giant sunflower growing rapidly, in its mouth, sharp teeth, scaring the crap out of us… daddy yelling at papa, who was rolling with laughter at his feet, while holding my shaking body close… 

  
Seeing my reflection for the first time and being only slightly disappointed that I didn’t have daddy’s green eyes… playing tag and hide and seek with Mikey, his easy smiles and genuine laughter… becoming concerned when papa turned into a mama and his belly started to grow soooo, soooo fat… 

  
Getting mad at daddy because “broccoli is gross!”… accidentally lashing out with my grace and hurting daddy, blood dripping between his fingers where he held his face… crying because “I killed daddy! What kind of monster am I!? Daddy’s gone!” I hadn’t, of course, killed him just cut his face but I was four or so and devastated… the one and only time papa got truly angry with me, the lights flickering-a couple bulbs bursting in the other room-eyes glowing, voice booming, and me crying harder because “I didn’t mean it! Bring daddy back!”… papa comforting me, once he gained his control, and showing me that daddy wasn’t, in fact, dead… 

  
The angel talk…meeting newborn Jessica and hating her for a hot minute when she took up so much of their time-I did get over it, eventually… Asking papa about his crown-like halo and if I had one because “Mikey has one too, just like yours, but Uncle Cas’ halo is different.” I never did get a straight answer out of him. Papa redirected my attention by conjuring up the biggest damn sundae that I‘d ever seen. Oh, look! A distraction!… I accepted.

  
Being frightened to go to kindergarten “what if they _know _daddy? What if they hate me?”… Daddy’s gentle and patient reassurance that, even if people did know, they couldn’t hate me because I was an angel-I laugh about that now… setting my homework on fire the whole first week-seriously! Who gives homework to five year olds?… papa snapping his fingers, putting the worksheets back together because “is it really that difficult to color in the letter A, Charlie?”…__

____

  
Papa’s constant but small pranks that he pulled on everyone, fish flavored suckers that smelled like warm pie, confetti blasting out of the fridge when daddy went in for the milk half asleep, turning the stairs into an escalator that only moved down when we tried to go up, and the list went on…being mad at Bobby because he wanted to spend more time with Mikey than me… feeling smug when Mikey invited me anyway… Going to work with daddy at his funky smelling herb and crystal shop… 

  
Papa and Uncle Cas teaching Bobby, Mary, and me how to unfurl our wings and fly, which took many tries-almost all of which ended up with us face first in the dirt. Mikey coming out to watch, laughing when we failed and cheering loudly when I, finally, got off the ground. The warm air shifting between my feathers as I soared over my uncles’ farm, chasing my cousins around, learning how to differentiate between the many drafts and currents, dodging and weaving through mock opponents-illusions of our favorite animals and cartoon characters-that papa conjured up. Papa always knew how to make learning fun…

  
Going to Uncle Bean’s equally funky smelling warehouse-he owned a construction company. He showed me the protection sigils on the materials saying that he may not be a hunter anymore but he could sure as hell still help people… daddy yelling at Uncle Bean when I asked, “what the hell are hunters?”… 

  
Seeing Uncle Cas female and very much prego-practically all of the time… watching Mikey, as a teenager, suddenly become quiet and withdrawn, spending less time with us but always had a smile for me when I pushed opened his door asking for a story… his strange but wonderful tales about a place called Eden and battles of angels… meeting my younger cousins: John, Jo, Kevin, and Lucy as they were born… meeting Ellen, another sibling with daddy’s eyes. I wasn’t and still aren’t really sure how I should feel about being the only one of their children that got papa‘s golden-amber eyes… 

  
Watching from the bushes, my chest burning with jealousy, as papa tried to teach Mikey his pagan magic in the backyard. Mikey complained and huffed and couldn’t’ve cared less, where as _I _-the _far too young _one-soaked in the lessons from my hiding spot, trying them out only after they had gone back inside and finding that I had a natural talent for it… their last session, where Mikey yelled at a blank faced papa about how papa was forcing him to do things that he didn’t want to. “My vessel is old enough now that I do not need you,” and “why can’t you just leave me alone, you sorry excuse for an angel?!”… That had been mere _hours _before daddy died. Papa watched him disappear into the house and then popped up behind me in the bushes, saying, “I guess, you’ll have to be my little trickster. Whaddya say, baby doll?” Excitement burned through my veins and my answering “yes!” could’ve been heard from heaven along with the stream of “thank you”s…______

_____ _

  
Papa’s voice urging me to take Ellen into Jessica’s room. “You lock the door, my little trickster, and don’t you dare come out.”

  
I gasped as I got pulled out of the memories. Night had fallen and snow flakes were dancing lazily around us, though, I was still warm. _Must be papa’s doing, _I thought, sitting up.__

____

  
“Sam says everyone’s headed to dinner on the other side of town. You’ve skipped lunch. You should eat.” He stood and offered me his hand. “Then you should rest, your grace is still healing.”

  
I stood, pushed a sucker into his hand, and snapped my fingers, teleporting myself into an alley beside the restaurant where my family was gathered. Gabriel popped up next to me with a grin, lopsided because of the sucker. “My little trickster,” he chuckled.

  
Papa took his time with the memory, the next day on the bench, even going so far as to replay it several times after asking if I wanted to “sleep” through it, swearing that he didn’t want to cause me any further pain. I declined his offer and watched replay after replay of the worst night of my life, catching a little more forgotten detail each time.

  
While papa had looked cool, calm, and collected on the surface, I could see the sheer panic in his eyes, the helplessness in his firm, urgent tone, his “please don’t let this be goodbye” in his touch, and the “I love you” in my nickname. I had taken my youngest sister from him and joined Jessica in her room, locking the door with a snap of my fingers.

  
Bear, Bones, and papa’s small terrier all paced about the room, whining softly at us. Another snap brought Ellen’s playpen into the room and I set her in it. She babbled and cooed and threw her toys about, completely ignorant of the situation. Bear nuzzled my hand nervously. My curious nature had me itching to follow the voices to the backyard. 

  
Daddy had kissed my forehead and run for their room, for their gun safe that I was _never _to open. All this after someone had knocked on the backdoor and hollered for my parents to step outside. I contemplated the odds that my papa was still inside and decided that no, he’d be outside with daddy by now.__

____

  
“I’ll be back, Jessie. I’m gonna get a few guests for a tea party,” I told my sister who excitedly agreed and set about preparing the large circular table in her room.

  
With a snap of my fingers, I was in my room which faced the backyard. My curtains were already pulled open to let in the sunlight, making spying a breeze. I sunk low to keep from getting noticed. Though I couldn’t hear their words, I could see their stances and practically feel the tension in the air.

  
Four angels-they each had a halo like Uncle Cas’, not quite as grand as papa’s-in male bodies stood facing my parents. Words. For a long time there were just words and aggressive posturing but then there were four angels holding silver spike-looking things-I’d never seen an angel blade before that day. Papa and daddy drew their own silver spikes and they all charged at each other. I held my breath, remembering some of the videogames I’d seen Mikey play with Bobby. I knew that people died when fights like this broke out. 

  
Finally, one of the angels caught daddy by the hair and held a silver spike to his throat. The angel yelled something and the fighting stopped. More silent words then daddy was shaking his head and papa was dropping his silver spike. Dread filled my stomach as I watched daddy yell and struggle to turn the spike in his hand around to stab the angel. But the moment daddy moved the spike toward the angel his eyes began to light up, his skin started to glow and crack, and then his body began to blur as if it was separating itself into an uncountable amount of tiny spheres and then… he was gone completely. 

  
My heart stopped because I knew… daddy was gone. Gone. Dead. There was no coming back like in the stories he’d told me about his and Uncle Bean’s adventures. He was gone for good.

  
Papa’s shoulders shook and his wings came out shining like the sun. The windows in my room began to shake violently. The angels wore panicked expressions, one of them-the one who made daddy disappear-tried more words as if that would make anything better. It made papa more angry. His silver spike flew into his hands and transformed into a sword of liquid gold.

  
_Ah, that’s how I knew the sword, _I thought, watching the memory go whiter and whiter, the backyard fading in the brightest of all bright white lights for the span of a second.__

__  
_ _

  
When I opened my eyes, the backyard was there again but the ground, once green with lush grass and bushes, was burnt and barren land. Papa had done some all-out-archangel-smiting for daddy, just a little too late. Papa was hunched over on his knees where daddy had disappeared, clutching his fist to his chest, his silver spike on the ground next to him.

  
Papa stayed there for a long time, his head bowed and unmoving. Not knowing what to do for my papa and in shock at the events myself, I gathered a couple stuffed animals and returned to Jessica’s room with another snap of my fingers. The dogs yipped in excitement when I popped in but they went back to pacing as I sat down and lied about why I had taken so long, saying that all of my teddies had wanted to join us and I had a hard time choosing.

  
Appeased, my formerly disgruntled sister began merrily pouring tea. I went through the motions with her but I was numb-wanting to cry but not really knowing how-and trying to distract her. Ellen woke from her nap just before the light outside the windows faded completely and papa knocked on the door before entering. He snatched Ellen up with a smile on his face and sweet words but his eyes were dull and empty.

  
Papa and I continued to go through the motions but I couldn’t quite get a smile on my face like he could. Dinner was extravagant, daddy being the only one missing. Even Mikey had come out of his cave. I saw the anger and sadness in his eyes behind the smile on his face. He knew that daddy was gone too and he knew that I knew. Mikey sat by my side brushing against me as we ate. The contact was comforting but no where near what I’d needed. 

  
When asked where daddy was, papa gave Jessica another sad smile and told her that a client had called and that daddy went into work. She accepted the answer with a giggled, “daddy’s store smells funny.” The only thing that kept me from crying was Mikey. He ran a finger down my cheek, momentarily soothing the tsunami of emotions.

  
I almost broke again when papa put me to bed. Ellen was already asleep in her crib across the room; Jessica had already gotten a story read to her and her lights turned out; and now it was my turn. Papa started to read the story of Goldilocks, the unwelcome house guest, but he looked so empty and sounded so hollow that I crawled out of bed and into his lap.

  
“Papa, can you lay with me until I fall asleep?”

  
He let the book drop and kissed my cheek with a smile and a tear rolling down his face. “Of course, I can, my little trickster.”

  
Curled into his chest and warm under the blankets, I fell asleep with an “I love you with all my grace, papa.”

  
Night had fallen by the time I was pulled out of the memories. Ice cold tears soaked my cheeks and the front of my shirt and jacket. I snapped away the wetness, cleared my throat, and popped a sucker into my mouth. We sat in silence for a while, watching the flurries of snow around us.

  
“No more tonight,” he said, finally, standing. “Come on. Dinner time.”


	4. Bad Moon Rising

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Charlie shares more and then gets a surprise...

The cemetery looked untouched by the events from my last visit. I paced through the headstones until I found a well shaded tree and snapped up a bench. Gabriel popped in beside me. I leaned my head on his shoulder and he summoned a large, warm blanket for us.

  
“Your doing, I assume,” indicating the lack of mess.

  
He nodded. “Yes and shielded the area during the fight to keep the humans from noticing.”

  
“Thank you. I don’t always think about things like that before a fight.”

  
He hummed. “I think we’ll blame that on you being related to Dean.”

  
I laughed. “You can’t blame all of your children’s ‘unappealing’ characteristics on Uncle Dean.”

  
“No, you’re right. Your cousins got it too. Might be contagious.”

  
Once I finished laughing and caught my breath, I asked, “are you ready?”

  
“No,” he sighed. But I knew he would forge on.

  
“My mind is open to you.”

  
I jolted awake. My bedroom was still dark and the bed was cold where papa had been earlier. Bear, who normally slept next to me, wasn’t in the room. Something nagged at me- _something _had woken me up. I swung my little legs out of bed and crept into the hallway, switching the light on. There, frozen in front of my sister’s open door was an angel. He had Jessica by the throat and held a silver spike poised over her heart. My numb state snapped.__

____

  
_NO! _I had screamed both in my head and aloud.__

____

  
Gone was my shock, my fear, and any and all semblance of control over my grace. My vision instantly whited-out, heat and rage and agony and hate blasted outward from the core of my power until it snapped back like a rubber band. I collapsed onto the now bare foundation of the house I used to live in. 

  
Bits and pieces of the rooms on the ground floor were left but the whole upper floor, along with the angel, had vaporized. Jessica and Ellen were nearby, the baby crying her head off at the sudden loss of her comfortable bed. Jessica’s eyes were wide with fear and awe. I cradled Ellen and turned to search for my papa and older brother. If my sisters had survived then so had they but they were no where to be found and all of the dogs were missing. The three of us were alone in the ruin of our childhood home. My heart hurt but I couldn’t cry.

  
Jessica took the baby while I gathered what valuables were left in the wreckage: a few family photos, papa’s green jacket complete with his silver spike, and a few other knick-knacks. I snapped up a bag and put us all in warm clothes. The moon was full and at its highest when we set out for our uncles’ farm.

  
Daddy had played a game with us every time he had driven us there. He got us to remember by allowing us to feel all powerful as we navigated the trip for him. The drive took a couple of hours and I had never teleported anyone other than myself but papa had shown me how to fly. Once outside the city limits, where no one could see us, I gathered Jessica in my arms with Ellen squished between us and took flight.

  
The flight was incredibly shorter but death and grief greeted us when we landed and I almost wished that I hadn’t. Uncle Cas opened the front door as our tiny feet hit the porch after having walked through the barren land in front of the house. I saw the emptiness in his eyes, the same that I’d seen in papa’s, under his questioning look.

  
Tired, hungry, and lost, I shrugged, too drained to react to the facts. I spouted, “daddy’s dead. Papa and Mikey are missing and our house is gone.”

  
His eyes widened and he quickly ushered us in and up to the spare bedroom. Before he left but after we’d said our “good night”s I whispered, “I’m sorry about Uncle Dean.” He flinched and nodded, quickly shutting the door. I snapped us up some snacks, my head spinning from the exertion, and ate before spreading out on the queen size bed with the baby between us.

  
_Papa, I pray to you _-oh right- _Archangel Gabriel, I pray to you. Come home-eh… to Cas’ farm. We need you. Mikey’s gone. You’re gone. Daddy’s… daddy’s dead. Please. Please, papa? _I sighed and Jessica fidgeted in her sleep. _ok. I love you, papa. Come back soon. Amen. _______

_____ _

  
Sleep took me before I’d finished closing my eyes.

  
Memories started to zip by again. Past Gabriel was being thorough it seemed.

  
The next morning’s explanation, the grief and pain… Cas telling us to stay in doors while he “sorted out” the “visiting” angels… the prayers, every night before sleep:

  
_I pray to you, archangel Gabriel, come back to us. We love you. Amen, _until the words were seared into my brain.__

____  
_I pray to you, quit being an ass, papa… I still love you. Come home. Amen, _until it became a mantra.__

Nearly a year later, _I pray to you, archangel Gabriel. Were we not good enough for you? What did we do wrong? We can change. Please, come home. I love you, papa. Amen, _until I was blue in the face.__

Years later, _this is my last prayer, papa. Stay away. A-fucking-men, _and I stopped praying after six years of silence.__

  
The memories of Cas training Bobby, Mary, and me flew by… the big showdown at the farm, angels surrounding the house. Cas pressing a box into Bobby’s hand and giving him a memory location, telling us to run-he’d hold them off long enough for our escape. We’d gotten only one short year of extra time with Cas and it seemed so unfair that he too had to die… 

  
Finding the bunker… more grief and pain… trying to organize our lives… to keep ourselves fed, real food was always better than conjured up food-though we had lived on that long enough to know that it’d keep you alive… trying to educate ourselves and the younger ones. Bobby, Mary, John, and I, at least, knew how to read and write… continuing our training on our own…teaching John how to defend himself… getting real life experience almost every time we went for a supply run… short, chaperoned trips to the lake, a few miles from the bunker-randomly, lest we become predictable…

  
Years and years of bunker life… starting to train the younger ones to control their grace, to fight, and to fly. Bittersweet memories from a happy time long past. But I had done what my papa had done for me; I made it fun and exciting, snapping up illusions for flight maneuvers… 

  
Returning to our houses. Mine being completely torn down with county notices all over the property. Bobby’s a fallen ruin, untouched by human hands. The beehives still intact and overflowing with honey. Distraught, Bobby cleaned and restocked the honeycombs with minimal help from me snapping up items that he needed. Bobby had considered the state of the beehives “proof” that his papa was dead…

  
Bobby asking me to move the hives near the bunker. I agreed easily… more years of bunker life, absorbing as much of the Men of Letter’s knowledge that I could. Decades of recorded information on every type of monster that you could think of… 

  
Talking to Bobby about investigating a strange death in some small town four states over. Him agreeing to my leave of absence, if that’s what I wanted, but a supply run was needed before I left… that being how Bobby and I ended up in the cemetery and nearly dying.

  
I surfaced from the mind-meld slowly, yawning and stretching. The sun would be setting in a couple of hours, painting the area with a deep orange tint. I felt small, now that my papa was done sifting through my memories. It had taken less than a day’s time, in total, for him to weave his way through my almost eighteen years of life and compared to his thousands upon thousands of years, mine was less than a speck.

  
_No wonder he left. A hundred years could pass in a blink of his eye. ___

____

  
“I became my father in the end,” he whispered, “leaving behind lost children when they needed me the most.”

  
“I like to think that you left to find daddy.” He cocked an eyebrow at me but remained silent and I continued, “I mean, he was taken apart-atomized, as it were- right?”

  
“It certainly looked that way. But collecting every molecule after something like that is nearly impossible.”

  
“Would that _really _have stopped you from trying?” I mused, bumping his shoulder with my own. When he stayed silent, I stood to walk away, saying, “smite first this time,” without looking back.__

____

  
I walk around the town to clear my head. Reliving my life had been hard and not because of the pain. No. That had become a constant dull ache in my soul that I bore each and every single day. Something that I shouldered each morning just to get out of bed. Something that made me push to hit harder and strike faster. Something that fueled me during battle. Something that made me patient and kind to what remained of my family. Something that made me cherish each and every moment of every day.

  
No. It was the good memories of our near perfect, happy family that stung me now. All of it had been taken from us. What could’ve been would never be… I suppose that is the point of the saying. And the messed up thing was that Gabriel had been so serious and transfixed by what I’d shown him that he never noticed that pieces of memory that I’d hid from him. 

  
Sam and Gabriel had the bond-the grace-soul bond. Every time they kissed, daddy’s eyes would glow gold for a moment because papa’s grace was infused with his soul. Daddy had stopped aging because that’s what a bond did to a human beloved of an angel. The bond came with a list of perks for daddy-and Uncle Dean: faster healing, sharpened senses, could see and hear their lover’s true form without burning out, increased strength, and those are just the ones that I knew about. And Gabriel never questioned that missing half of their relationship.

  
He never saw the way I use to crawl into bed with them in the middle of the night, if I’d woken up; never saw the way I used to pray to grandpa Chuck “please, oh please, grandpa Chuck. Can I have a love like daddy’s and papa’s when I grow up?”; never saw Ellen’s long list of firsts, like he had with Jessica, because Ellie felt more like my daughter than his; never saw the days where I pretended to have eaten but couldn’t bring the food to my mouth because I felt like I was drowning; never saw the nights, after I stopped praying to him, that I lay crying into my pillow because I felt trapped and hopeless, like I was suffocating; and never saw the heart crushing despair that I buried deep when I gave up on everything I believed in as a girl: God, good, dreams, plans, love… papa.

  
Even if papa could change our future-you know, smite first and all-where would that leave me when we went back? Would I remember the last ten years? Would our world reset to that day? Would I have to go through puberty again? By the gods, that had been awful!

  
I sighed, heavily. These thoughts weren’t gonna clear up any time soon and my stomach was rumbling. I raised my hand to snap myself back to the hotel when a human hand grabbed mine and proceeded to shove me roughly against the nearest building. I hit with an “oof” then started to laugh loudly and couldn’t stop, even when the guy-the _human _guy-put the barrel of his gun to my chest. I snapped my fingers, turning his real gun into a water gun-keeping the metal casing for appearances. He barked at me to shut but I only laughed harder, mentally sending out a prayer.__

____

  
_Gabriel. Castiel. Guys! Get over here! You have to see this! ___

____

  
The two angels popped in next to us making the gunman flinch and bark another order. Tears! Tears were streaming down my face, I was laughing so hard. Gabriel’s laughter joined mine and he doubled over clutching the wall for support. Cas merely frowned and tilted his head at the human man.

  
Cas’ rough voice cut through our laughter. “I would not recommend this course of action,” he told the would be assailant.

  
Gabriel and I howled our merriment to the half moon above. The man became agitated and pulled the trigger, only to have water hit him in the face-no one said that I’d made it into a _proper _water gun. I bent over, trying to heave in air between bouts of now silent laughter. My sides and throat began to ache and I knew that I should try to calm myself.__

____

  
But this was so damn hilarious! A _human _attacking me! Nephilim and baby trickster! After what I’d-regrettably-had to do to the Remnants?__

____

  
Cas put a hand on the man’s shoulder. “I would suggest that you run before they no longer find you amusing.”

  
“Dammit Cas!” I wheezed, my laughter returning in full swing.

  
The man all but disappeared after that. Cas stood frowning at us and, instead of waiting for our fit to end, he tapped each of us on the forehead, teleporting us into the re-stretched hotel room. Papa and I quickly became the center of attention. Sam asked Cas what had happened and I tried to answer. 

  
“A dude-” insert fit of giggles. “H-he-” giant breath and more laughter. “And-” Wheezing. I shook my head and pointed to Cas.

  
Dean frowned down at us while Cas explained the situation. Before he was done, half of the kids gathered around us were in stitches. It took far too long to calm down but I managed it, laying on my back on the grimy hotel floor red faced and practically panting.

  
“Oh,” I breathed. “Oh, I needed that. That guy was awesome.”

  
“He held a gun to your chest,” Bobby grunted, crossing his arms. “How is this amusing?”

  
I tilted my head at him. “Cas did tell you that I turned it into a water gun, right?”

  
Bobby huffed, shaking his head, and stalked out of the room. I groaned, shot up, and ran after him. He was nearly a block away by the time I caught up to him.

  
“Damn your long legs,” I muttered, wrapping my arms around his middle and hugging him tight. He stumbled a step and stopped. “I’m sorry. I know how it sounded but I swear to you that I wasn’t in any danger. The guy was human and I neutralized his gun pretty quickly. Plus, our papa’s showed up when I called.”

  
He snorted. “They both went pale, Charlie. They did a mild panicked glance at each other and blinked out of the room. They thought you were in danger. How do you think it made the rest of us feel when the freakin’ _angels _got scared? I thought another of the Remnants had gotten you.”__

____  


  
“Yeah, in retrospect, I could’ve been a little less vague in my prayer.”

  
“Ya think?” he turned in my embrace and hugged me properly. “Alright, little cousin,” he said, grudgingly, “I accept your apology… this time.”

  
I grinned up at him. “Of course, you do. I’m adorable.”

  
Bobby laughed. “Yeah, ok, jerk.”

  
“Bitch,” I teased back, gently pushing away.

  
On the short walk back to the hotel, he asked, “we’re gonna be ok, aren’t we? I mean…” he paused, not really wanting to voice it aloud. “When we get back and nothing’s changed?”

  
“We’ll have to be. We’ll carry on. Maybe we can dig out your dad’s impala and restore it to keep our mind off things for a while.”

  
He frowned. “You think they still make parts for it?”

  
I stopped walking. “Um… have you met me, Bz?” He grinned, bowing dramatically. “My apologies, oh! mighty trickster with your mighty magics and your mighty wit.” He looked up to see if I’d had enough of his mocking.

  
I pretend-polished my nails. “No. Please, go on.”

  
“Praise be unto thee, great goddess of all things mechanical.” Our dad’s stuck their heads out of the door at the commotion. “Ye who hath snapped thine fingers and brought upon thy kith and kin the great black smoke of the milkshake maker-”

  
“Ok, that was not my fault-” I started to protest.

  
“Ye who hath snapped thine fingers,” he continued, unperturbed, “and brought upon thy kith and kin the great flood of 2041!”

  
“I was ten! And I’m not a plumbe-”

  
“Ye! Who hath snapped thine fingers-”

  
“Ima snap your neck in a-”

  
“And brought upon your kith and kin-”

  
I tackled him, laughing. “Ok I get it-”

  
“The great power outage of 2039!”

  
“I was no older than ten in any of those scenarios and I haven’t blown anything up in years, unless I meant to. But, _IF _it will pacify the great nonbeliever, I will do extensive research and experiment away from the car.”__

__  
_ _

  
Uncle Dean got all shifty. “What car?”

  
Bobby opened his mouth to say something stupid, like give his dad the low down on his beloved Baby, when Gabriel called us in. My cousin and I exchanged looks of relief… _whew! Saved by the archangel. ___

__  
_ _

  
“The legion, not quite the Remnants that they are in your time, want to meet with you. More specifically, their leader, Raziel, does.”

  
“That doesn’t sound intimidating, at all,” the sarcasm was thick in my words.

  
“Well, you’d be crazy to think that I’m not going in there with you,” my papa assured.

  
“And me-” Sam started.

  
“No,” I told him firmly. “No, this will be _only _Gabriel and me. We’re gonna hop everyone back to the bunker and then the four of you will protect them. If this is a trap, fine. But my kid sisters and cousins aren’t gonna fall victim to it. You hear?”__

__  
_ _

  
I may have gotten a little commanding and it may have come out a little more harsh than I had meant but no one objected so I took it as a win. Gabriel relayed the specifics of the meet over angel radio. Dread started to pool in my stomach… anticipation is a bitch.


	5. Here I Go Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Last goodbyes

I bounced nervously on the balls of feet. Gabriel stood beside me and rolled his eyes.

  
“Little self-proclaimed-badass feeling a bit antsy?”

  
I glared at him. “I’m not good with waiting.” I took a deep breath and said, “ok. Just remember to be nice. You can be mean later but you can’t take it back.”

  
Gabriel’s eyebrows rose high. “What book of inspirational quotes did you swallow, miss badass?”

  
“Oh, can it, will you? If we mess this up-” I cut myself off.

  
I’d thought about that all night while we got everyone settled in the bunker and then again as I was supposed to be sleeping. What if this meeting had been the catalyst that caused the Remnants to attack us? What if one slip of the tongue in the past from my future self got my daddy-I’m a child, I know-atomized, or whatever the proper term for it is? What if I really did kill him?

  
Gabriel seemed to sense my thoughts and let it go. So there we waited, in the middle of an abandoned warehouse. Two misfits-a pagan god archangel and a nephilim abomination-waiting for the General angel Raziel of the current Legion. I may have started to sweat.

  
“Hello, brother.” The voice was male, deep and silky.

  
Three angels had blinked into existence before us, in one of those typical triangle formations, all of them dressed in dark suits and bland ties. 

  
“Raziel.” Gabriel greeted the angel with a nod.

  
“Child.” The angel’s voice was strained but polite enough. 

  
“Charlie,” I supplied for him, offering him my hand.

  
“That’s a human gesture,” he noted while shaking my hand.

  
“I’m half human, raised among humans,” I explained.

  
“I am… aware.”

  
_Then why comment on it? Sigh. _Aloud, I said, “Gabriel said that you wanted a truce?”__

____

  
“I told him that I wanted to advert that _tragedy _from happening in our future,” he corrected me.__

____

  
“Then your Legion can start with _not _killing the Winchester brothers.”__

____

  
Raziel tilted his head in confusion. “What do they have to do with anything?”

  
“They are the human parents of my cousins and my siblings.”

  
“That impossible!” 

  
“No, brother,” Gabriel mused, “just not done before. I am her angelic parent.”

  
“How?”

  
Gabriel shrugged. “Does it matter?” he asked and then added with a grin, “unless you’ve got the hots for a human male.”

  
Raziel looked offended. “Angels do not, as you say, ‘get the hots’ for mortals.”

  
“Shame. They truly are inspired creatures.”

  
The angel let the subject drop with a sigh. “Can we or can we not come to an agreement that prevent the deaths of my soldiers?” he asked me.

  
“We can but there’s one small problem: you’re not their leader in my time.”

  
The angel shifted as if he’d suddenly become uncomfortable. I could practically see his wings shuffling as he processed the information. There was only one reason he wouldn’t be and he knew it… Raziel would die between having this meeting and the time I turn eight.

  
Finally, Raziel cleared his throat, unnecessarily, and said, “I see. Would you happen to know the angels’ names that took my place? If they will one day lead the Legion then they too should be here.”

  
“Eremiel was the first one I met,” _while he was trying to carve out the “abomination of a heart” within my chest, _Is what I left unsaid. “The last, well, he died in the cemetery but I never caught his name. I know his face though.” Bringing up a picture of it in my mind, I projected the image to Raziel who flinched upon “receiving” it.__

____

  
“Tabbris,” he whispered in horror but quickly schooled his features.

  
“Who is Tabbris?” I asked.

  
“None of your concern.” His eyes flashed threateningly. 

  
Gabriel chuckled. “He’s your second. Back in the day, you two were thick as thieves, if I remember correctly.”

  
Raziel huffed as if he were being severely inconvenienced. He did some sort of eye communication with the angels behind him. With the tiniest of twitches, one of the angels stabbed the other. The angel’s wings seared black into the cement floor and Raziel sighed again, while I starred open-mouthed at the whole scene.

  
_What? In the nine circles of Hell! Was that? ___

____

  
“There is a faction of angels,” Raziel began to explain, “that fancy themselves the ‘Remnants of Judas.’ They are fighting against us for the rule of Heaven. We discovered a spy within our midst and he,” he indicated the burnt out angel, “was that spy. However, when we stopped giving him vital information the Remnants continued to have knowledge that they shouldn’t, as if they knew everything. Now, here you are telling me that after Eremiel takes leadership of my soldiers Tabbris is then leader… that can only mean that my age-old friend is the second.”

  
“And your blind spot-your weakness. What gets you killed,” I added.

  
Raziel shot me a sharp look that said he could have lived without my words. “Precisely.” He pinched the bridge of his nose-a completely human gesture. “Which means, I need to act quickly-capture him and kill Eremiel-so that I may keep my word when I say that no harm will some to any Winchester from the Legion under my command so long as you no longer hunt us.”

  
“I’ve never hunted the Legion or any angel, nor do I ever plan to. I’ve only ever defended my family and myself.”

  
Raziel nodded his understanding. “Very well. With this we break the cycle of death between us.”

  
“I’d like to help you,” Gabriel offered, “ _only _with this, to keep my family safe.”__

____

  
“Thank you, brother. I will be in touch soon.” To me, Raziel said, “I will do everything in my power to keep my word until my death-hopefully, farther away than your childhood. However, you and your family must return to your own time now, Charlie Winchester, Daughter of Gabriel.”

  
I glanced over at my papa briefly. How could I ask the kids to say “goodbye” to their long dead parents knowing that it may be the last time we ever them? Our “happy reunion,” the last few days, may be the cruelest thing I’ve-we’ve-ever been subjected to in our short miserable lives. Already grieving the loss, I nodded.

  
“Of course, we’ll depart tonight.”

  
“Very good.”

  
I gave the angel a small smile. “I hope to see you there.”

  
Raziel’s lip twitched as if he were going to smile. “Under happier circumstances.” And with that, both angels disappeared.

  
I let out a sigh of relief. “You think he’ll get them before they get him?”

  
There was a dark smitey gleam in my papa’s eye when he said, “with my help, you bet your ass, he will.”

  
_Not my ass that I’m worried about. ___

____

  
Gabriel and I wasted no time in getting everyone up to speed when we got back to the bunker. The four eldest of my cousins took it the hardest, having an abundance of clearer memories from before their deaths; Bobby and John fell into complete silence; Mary tried her best to hold back her tears; Jo, five when Dean died, remembered enough of her parents to miss them horribly. She yelled things at me like, “how could you agree to that?” and “I’m not leaving!” and “I hate you!” before storming away. Cas went after her.

  
“I don’t want to go either,” I told the others, “but this isn’t our time. We have to go back.”

  
Saddened but in agreement, they spent the next few hours basically following their parents around. I spent the time in a corner of the library, finishing the book I had been reading-well, trying to, anyway. I figured that if I distanced myself now, maybe leaving wouldn’t be so difficult. That’s how Sam found me, alone with a book in my lap and starring into space, lost in self pity.

  
“Your book’s upside down.”

  
I startled at his sudden appearance and looked down to check the words… my book was _not, _in fact, upside down… but then that had been the point. I hadn’t been paying attention to it at all.__

____

  
He chuckled. “Dinner’s almost ready, if you’re hungry,” he suggested gently.

  
I nodded, remaining in my chair and pretending to go back to the book.

  
“Believe me,” he said, pulling up a chair, “I know how hard this is. Dean and I have gone through this exact thing. It hurts every time. I wish I could take the pain-”

  
“We can only hope and when hope fails we carry on, anyway. The Winchester curse, right?” I whispered not looking at him. “Uncle Cas made me repeat it over and over again… we carry on, anyway… said I reminded him of Uncle Dean, more than the others.” I, finally looked up into my father’s green puppy dog eyes. 

  
I could see the emotions swirling through him, it tore him up knowing that a child of his had suffered and I just couldn’t seem to shut up-to protect him by leaving him ignorant.

  
“I need you to understand that to protect them the way that Dean wanted- _wants _-to protect you, I need that pain. I don’t know what’ll be waiting for us back home but I do know that even if the angels are all gone, there are still hordes of monsters out there that can smell the grace in our blood and to them we smell-for lack of a better word-divine.”__

____

  
“So you’ll take up hunting?”

  
“Saving people. Hunting things. The family business.”

  
Sam flinched like I’d slapped him. “I would never want that for any child of mine.”

  
“I know. Hell! The one time I even asked about hunters you went after Dean like he’d skinned your dog.”

  
Surprise lit his face. “We had a dog?”

  
“A couple,” I told him, vaguely. “They disappeared with papa though… or maybe Mikey or Hell! Maybe I accidentally smote them.”

  
Sam looked incredibly concerned with that last one. “Sm-”

  
I interrupted with a wave of my hand. “Long story.” We sat in silence for a while, listening to the sounds of a happy feast echo through the halls. I finally broke it. “I don’t want you to feel obligated to… _do _… anything just because you’ve met us. Only be with papa if you love him… please?”__

____

  
He looked startled by the request and tucked a lose strand of his long hair behind his ear. “If I don’t then you’ll never be bor-”

  
“And you don’t die and we don’t have to live with papa abandoning us.”

  
He nodded, mulling over my words. “Come, eat dinner with us. I promise that if I don’t love Gabriel, I won’t get together with him out of obligation to potential beautiful, brave, angelic daughters. Deal?”

  
I gave him a sad smile. _I’m a killer. I’ve taken so much life-so many angels are dead because of me. _“Deal.”__

____

  
“What?” Gabriel sauntered into the room with a smirk on his face. “No sappy one-liners for your papa?”

  
I smiled as genuinely as I could. “I do have one… don’t be a dick.”

  
Gabriel threw back his head and laughed. “That’s my girl.” He laced an arm around me shoulders, saying, “don’t worry, my little trickster. I’ll have samsquatch wooed before you know it.”

  
“How modest of you,” Sam said flatly with a bitch face just for the archangel.

  
“So, you’ve always called him that?” It was more of a statement than a question. “Huh… I’d always thought it was some sort of endearment like honey or babe.”

  
Sam glared at Gabriel. “Thirty-some-odd years into the future and you’re still calling me that ridiculous name?” He huffed and left.

  
Gabriel winked at me. “Who ever said that it wasn’t.”

  
My family stood, clumped into two groups, just outside the bunker’s front door. There were soft, whispered farewells, silent tears-from the kids, anyway-and hugs upon hugs. This night was serving as our chance to say a proper goodbye. Jo was still protesting loudly but only half-heartedly. Whatever Cas had done to calm her done earlier seemed to abate any further violent reactions, thank Grandpa Chuck.

  
Finally, Gabriel clapped his hands, saying, “alright, kiddos. Time to go home.”

  
My siblings and cousins began to crowd together. Jo clung to Cas’ coat with one last, “but I’ll miss you.” Cas bent down and whispered something in her ear. Jo nodded and let go to join us. We all joined hands as we’d been instructed.

  
“Alright.” Gabriel nodded in approval and rubbed his hands together. “Make sure to keep all hands and feet within the ride at all times and thank you for flying AngelAir.”

  
I snorted and blinked. The kids were gone but I still stood in front of the angels and men. “Wha-?”

  
“See you on the flip side, little trickster,” my papa said with a smile.

  
His words stung. Both of us knew that this would be last we saw of each other. Before I could protest, however, the four of them smiled at me and Gabriel touched my forehead. I blinked out of their time.

  
“So I’m gay,” Dean said as if he could barely process it.

  
Cas frowned. “Dean angels are not gender specific like your race is. After all, my true form is, as you’ve so elegantly stated in the past, junkless.”

  
Gabriel laughed-Sam turned his head and held his breath trying not to-and said, “Dean-o, I hope there’s more to your love than love for Cas’ vessel. We are not our vessels. We’re gigantic glowworms stuffed into a sleeve. Focus on the glowworm bit of your lover.”

  
Sam broke with that but quickly reigned it in. “Basically… yeah, you’re gay for Cas and only because he happens to be occupying a male vessel.”

  
Dean considered their words for a minute. “I need a drink.” He disappeared into the bunker with Cas on his heels.

  
Gabriel turned to Sam. “Any objections to being gay for my vessel?”

  
Sam chuckled. “No. Not after seeing those kids of ours.” He sighed, turning his face toward the moon. “I mean, Dean and I got to live happy, normal-uh…ish-lives. We had kids and legit businesses and were still helping people. It sounds so perfect… up until our past caught up with us.” Sam took a deep breath and looked at the archangel. “We can’t do that to them again. We got soft and out of practice and-”

  
“Whoa.” Gabriel laid a hand on the man’s forearm. “One problem at a time, Sam, and I’m already on it. I’m going to work with Raziel to make sure that their lives don’t end up that way. We’ll nip the angel problem in the bud. We can worry about all other problems as they come up.”

  
Sam frowned. “I’m not sure what scares me most: your serious tone or the relief I got from knowing that you really do have this. You’re making me feel safe,” he mockingly complained.

  
“Oh, Samsquatch,” Gabriel said with his usual bravado and suggestive eyebrow movements, “am I making you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, already?”

  
Sam let out a dramatic sigh of relief. “Oh, thank goodness, you’re back. I almost thought you’d been body snatched.”

  
Gabriel grew serious again and he drops the mother of all bombs on his future mate. “By the way, we end up raising baby archangel Michael, trapped in his Adam vessel, as our own.”

  
Sam stares open-mouthed at the trickster, waiting for the “just kidding!” When it doesn’t happen his eyebrows pull together. Sam sucks in a breath to say something, changes his mind, frowns, and walks away.

  
“Too much?” Gabriel calls after him.

  
“I need a drink!”


	6. Thanks For The Memories

When papa sent me back, I fully expected to blink and see the bunker’s front door thirty-some-odd years in the future. Instead, I saw memories of the life I’d always wished I’d had. And I say “memories” because of the intense emotion attached to each scene or image that I saw, as if I truly had lived them. Each new memory layering itself next to the ones I knew that I’d actually lived through.

  
Nervousness when meeting Raziel, whose halo looked more like Cas’ than papa’s, for the “first” time. Raziel’s vessel bore molten chocolate brown eyes and long-longer than daddy’s-black hair, tied back at the base of his skull. He wore jeans and a tee-looking almost completely different from the angel who I‘d met with. Thus began my fascination with his vessel.

  
Overwhelming joy when papa asked me if I wanted to learn his pagan magic. Mikey had been told that he would learn it with me and he complained a little less when I’d gone on and on about how much fun we could have together.

  
The unbearable interest when daddy had read me books, from the bunker, and explained all the different aspects of hunting. Later, when I learned to read, I devoured stacks of the lore at a time. Daddy and Uncle Dean taught me everything they could think to: sigils to protect against monsters, demons, and even angels, the different weapons used in hunting, hex bags-what they were used for and how to negate their power, how to hide from a vampire, and list went on.

  
The exhilaration of flying over a mountain range with Mikey for a weekend of camping. Feeling utter content as I watched the campfire crackle and pop and listened to the river gurgle nearby as we wound down for the day. The serenity in the isolation from the outside world. The wonder in the mountain forest yet untouched by human hands. We’d gotten lost among the wilderness-well, we lost track of time-and papa had to collect us.

  
Laughing as Bobby chased the bees. The sense of accomplishment when we’d collected their honey the “human” way. Feeling pride as he nailed his parts in school plays. Staring in awe at the scenes that he’d brought to life on canvas.

  
Confusion when Mikey sat me down and told me that he wasn’t my brother or even a nephilim. _Wait! What?! _He was technically my uncle and papa’s eldest brother, the archangel Michael. Fear that he would leave us-leave me. The immense relief as he explained that he wanted to stay a little while longer even though he’d already graduated from high school and was “old enough” to drink alcohol.__

____

  
Preening under Raziel’s attention when he dropped by to check on the family. My heart swelling with pride when he allowed me to show off what I’d learned of my magic and my flying since his last visit and getting his approval at my advancement.

  
_Yeah… that’s starting to smell a lot like a crush, _I thought as the memories continued.__

____

  
A sense of power-or rather, a sense of strength, I guess-when papa and Uncle Cas decided to teach us to defend ourselves… just in case. Bobby, Mary, John, and I learned how to fight at a more comfortable, easy pace and there turned out to be a lot of things that Cas-in our limited time-hadn’t been able to teach us. Eventually, this too became added to the list of things I showed-off to Raziel.

  
_It’s so embarrassing! Stop it, baby me! _I bemoaned to the uncaring memories.__

____

  
A complete lack of interest when Uncle Dean tried to teach Mary and me about cars. Mary found her niche, however, as cars and anything mechanical became her passion. Amazement watching her take things apart and put them back together like it was nothing.

  
Sadness when John had to watch his human friend waste away and die from cancer. He’d gone silent for months before surprising everyone at one of our family dinners with a loud announcement of how he was going to be a doctor for kids. Dean and Cas started looking up private schools that catered to his educational needs.

  
Admiration at Jo’s and Jessica’s detailed plan for their trip around the world. They couldn’t wait to turn eighteen and vamoose. Not that they weren’t happy, they just felt-and I’ll use their words-“other-worldly.” Yes, I’m rolling my eyes too. 

  
Feeling your typical sisterly affection-that warred with my motherly affection-toward Ellen as daddy and papa got all of her firsts and she started ballet lessons because she wanted to dance. Daddy and papa were always jumping to lead us in the right direction when we said that we wanted to do something because “if you want to do something then you have to work for it and you should start early.”

  
Rolling my eyes at Kevin while he boasted that one day he’d find his princess and then they’d take in ALL of the children without parents-no. You don’t understand… he didn’t mean a few or a few dozen. No. He wants ALL of the children. I had wanted to tell him how impossible that’d be but decided, last minute, to let the boy have his dreams.

  
Annoyance. Lucy… I feel bad about admitting it because, to be honest, her singing voice was insanely beautiful but her attitude was crap and her talking voice grated on me. She boasted, to anyone who would listen, that she was going to be a famous singer and that they-a mysterious they-would play her songs on the radio and that she’d marry her papa. _Problem! He’s already married! _But she didn’t care and I let that one go too mainly because I couldn’t stand her voice any longer. The walk around the farm afterward was peaceful and Bear kept me company.__

____

  
A mixture of fear and excitement as I got behind the wheel of Mikey’s new truck and he taught me to drive as daddy had taught him. The sincerity and love in my words as I told Mikey that, no matter what, he’d always be my brother, regardless of blood. The force of the resulting hug nearly crushed me. He beamed at me then like he did when I later passed my driving test.

  
A thrill running through me as Raziel accepted my request to spar. Our mock battle with blunt wooden “angel blades” lasted until papa called it quits for dinner. The burn in my cheeks from having grinned so widely for so long as Raziel-very formally-thanked me and flew away.

  
Companionship when there was always a next time, usually once a month, where he’d-very formally-ask to spar, though the sessions didn’t last as long as the first and then we’d sit talking about our lives, for a while.

  
Mild embarrassment as papa teased me, when Raziel wasn’t around, over my crush. Near crippling anxiety when papa’s teasing got really bad and started to bleed into Raziel’s visits. I started avoiding the increasingly confused angel, finding excuses to leave the room if he entered. Relief when daddy stepped in, demanding that papa go play Loki for a week on the other side of the country. Sighing, he said, “just don’t kill anyone and leave our daughter alone, for your father’s sake.” Papa had done just that.

  
The daunting task of walking across the small stage to accept my high school diploma. My vision tunneled as I began to walk, barely hearing the school officials congratulating me. That had been the longest walk of my life though it had last no longer than a minute. But then I was free! I nearly lost control of my grace-in the same way that puppies sometimes pee when they get excited… not my finest moment and it quickly quelled the rising emotion. 

  
The reluctance to let Mikey go when he decided that he was going to get the “full human experience” and attend college, mentioning psychology and human studies. Mildly mourning his constant presence as I watched his truck disappear after he’d packed it. I knew I could still call him and visit but he would no longer be just a hop and a skip from my room. 

  
Woven among all of these memories were family celebrations for holidays, birthdays, and accomplishments. This life that I saw before me was blessed and perfect and… not my life. I understood that papa and Raziel and who knew how many others had changed their future and this was the life that they had lived. And while I _felt _the new memories bone deep as if they truly were my own, I also felt detached from them as if I was a third party watching from the sideline. These memories were laid next to the memories of the miserable life that I’d lead personally.__

____

  
Life without my parents had changed who I was and there was no way that the new memories could take that away or cancel the old ones out. I was now both and neither Charlie… so, who did that make me?

  
I didn’t have long to ponder the question. I landed hard and my legs buckled, sending me onto my hands and knees. I promptly vomited… violently… until my stomach had emptied out even the bile. When the heaving died down, I sat back and lifted my face to the sky. The sun was shining brightly down on the cemetery in Kansas that I had disappeared from in the first place.

  
I caught my breath and assessed myself. I was dizzy, my head spinning trying to reconcile the conflicting memories, and when I wiped my uncomfortably wet nose my hand came away red. _Awesome. Nose bleed. _Only then did I realize that there was an angel nearby. Expecting the worst, I shot to my feet, trying to draw a blade but my head spun violently and I nearly ended up back on the ground. The angel caught my stumbling form. Looking up, I found Raziel smiling down at me.__

____

  
“Welcome back, Charlie.” His voice had remained unchanged, deep and silky.

  
I found myself blushing and promptly rolling my eyes at my reaction. Once on my feet and with my crushing school girl securely locked away, I smiled politely at him.

  
“Thanks. How was the long way around?”

  
“Long. Come on, I’m to take you to the bunker. The others were taken back immediately. The return was rougher on your cousins.”

  
My head snapped up and I regretted the movement, nearly losing all balance. Groaning and clinging to the stable angel, I asked, “but they’ll be alright, yes?”

  
“Of course. They’re half human,” he stated this as if that explained everything but, thankfully, continued and clarified, “I’ve learned that humans are quite resilient.” He held onto me and starting walking us toward a car. “Come on, let’s get you back to them.”

  
“You learned to drive?” _Color me shocked. ___

____

  
Raziel chuckled. “I’ve learned a great many things since our first meeting.”

  
“That was like four hours ago… for me.” I groaned again, “ugh, I need this to stop.”

  
“You need to rest, give your brain time to sort it all out.” The angel helped me into the passenger seat and buckled me before sliding into the driver seat. I fell asleep before he had the car on the road.

  
I woke alone in a room bare of any personal touch save for my angel blades. I knew that I was in the bunker but I had no idea whose room I was in. Before I sat up, I did a quick check on my body for damages but I felt fine-better than fine-the best I’d felt in… forever. My head and stomach, blessedly, gave me no trouble when I stood wearing a stranger’s sweats and tee.

  
The hallway outside was dead silent, the only sound reaching my ears was the soft whisper of my bare feet on the floor. I checked the main room and kitchen-still, no sounds and no signs of life. Panic crept into my chest and my grace flared which I quickly used to search the entirety of the bunker. Nothing. With a snap of my fingers, I was dressed and my blades strapped to my hips. My boots came down hard as I took the stairs two at a time up to the front door.

  
I burst out of the sanctuary’s door into the bright sunlight of midday. I immediately shut my eyes against the assault on my retinas and began to slowly blink until my eyes fully adjusted. The cicadas buzzed loudly in the summer heat around which I could just barely hear a tiny pin prick of Ellen’s screams.

  
Now, at this point, I _probably _should’ve taken a moment to analyze not only the _type _of scream I’d heard but also it’s _general location. _Had I have put all the information together, I may not have reacted as ferociously as I did. Because, true to form, I went in guns blazing… well, _blades _blazing.________

_____ _

  
I took to the sky with a deep burning anger in my chest, my wings drawn, archangel blade in true form, grace unleashed, and practically battle crazed.

  
My baby- _no, my sister _-was in danger.__

____

  
I landed heavily next to Ellen, scaring the hell out of her and everyone else in the clearing. My left wing curled around her and plowed into the earth, anchoring itself, while my right wing shielded me on its side and I poised myself ready for battle… all while ignoring the truth of the scene before me.

  
There was no danger and I- _Angelzilla, _as Uncle Dean had once called me-looked like a giant ass. Laughter to my left startled me and between that and Bobby’s “I told you someone should’ve stayed with her” my brain was finally catching up. My family had gone for a swim at the lake a little ways from the bunker. I shook my head reeling in my grace, my wings disappeared, and I sheathed the back-to-normal blade at my hip.__

____

  
I glared at my papa who was still holding his sides and rolling in laughter at my dad’s feet. I sighed. “Even a note would’ve done, you know.”

  
Sam, my dad, engulfed me in a bear hug. “Welcome back, little bug.”

  
I nearly cried at the half forgotten endearment but held it back for a more dignified, “I missed you, daddy.”

  
_Ever the lost child, _I sighed to myself.__

____

  
When we broke apart, I smiled at the rest of my family, most of whom had remained frozen and wide-eyed after my appearance. “So… I may have over-reacted a smidge.”

  
That broke the tension and the line for hugs commenced. Uncle Cas was Auntie Cas and more than a little pregnant with another boy, something that wasn’t in my old memories, so I had to be gentle with him but everyone else squeezed me tightly before returning to playing or swimming. Raziel had stuck around and greeted me politely before Uncle Dean challenged him to some sort of water volleyball game.

  
Papa, over his laughing fit, slid his arm across my shoulders as we watched our family mill about. His tone was as serious as it had been the last time I’d seen him. “I thought you prepared me for this, that I’d known what to expect. But you, my little trickster, left out a few minor details.”

  
I grinned. “I couldn’t spoil all the surprises. There’s no fun in that. My papa taught me as much.”

  
“Well, you gave me enough. Sammich and I worked out the rest.”

  
“I’m glad but the memories-the life I didn’t live...” I hesitated, unsure of what I meant to ask him.

  
“From our end you did live that life. You all disappeared from your beds a couple nights ago and scared us half to death before we remembered that you’d have to come back at some point. We all raced to get here in time.”

  
“Come on, Charlie!” Mary called to me from the water. “Get in here! I’m losing without you!”

  
I unclasped my holstered blades and set them on the ground with a chuckle. “Duty calls.” Snapping my fingers instantly changed me into my bathing suit as I ran for the water’s edge. A small bit of grace helped me run across the water’s surface to her instead of wasting time and energy wading through.

  
“The great messiah!” John called in mock-awe with a rare genuine smile on his face-though, not so rare in my new memories.

  
I flipped him the bird and a mock-glare just before letting go of the grace and plunging into the water. I surfaced quickly to join Mary in water wrestling the boys which quickly turned into an all out family event-save for Cas who watched from the shoreline with a smile. 

  
Mikey joined us for the feast of a dinner that we all sat around some time later. Between my parents, Bobby and myself, my _archangel _of a brother got the basic gist of our lives: the old memories, our adventures in the past, and dealing with the new overlapping memories.__

__  
_ _

  
He frowned. “I really abandoned you girls?”

  
“Yep.”

  
“Well, if I’m not a great big bag of dicks.”

  
I laughed and bumped his shoulder with mine. “We all did better this time, Mikey. No worries.”

  
“That we did, thanks to one feisty little abomination,” my papa announced. Raziel on my other side flinched while the rest of my family chuckled at the long running joke.

  
“Hey!” I protested over the din. “It’s not _all _my fault. I mean y’all took down the Remnants before they took the Legion.”__

__  
_ _

  
“Because you tipped us off,” Raziel told me.

  
I crossed my arms like a petulant child. “Bobby and Mary and all the others were there too. I was never alone.”

  
“How about this,” my dad said, interrupting whatever my papa was going to say next, and raised his bottle. “Here’s to our children and their interference, without which we would not have gotten where we are today.”

  
“Yeah,” Uncle Dean added loudly, “older than-well… not Hell… but-hell and happier than we might deserve.” He laced his arm over the back of Uncle Cas’ chair and took a swig of his beer.

  
After the majority of the cheering died down, I asked, “so, not that I’m complaining but are you two gonna _ever _stop having kids?”__

__  
_ _

  
“We’re definitely taking some ‘us time’ after this one, I think,” Uncle Dean said with a grin. “I mean, it’s not like we don’t have forever.”

  
“Of course, with the way you two go after each other, I’m surprised that you don’t have more,” my papa added casually.

  
“Our sex life-” Uncle Dean began haughtily.

  
He was promptly cut off by the scrapping of most of the chairs around the table as my siblings and cousins began to flee the room. I was the last one out with a “parental sex is gross, you guys! Who’s got the brain bleach?” leaving the adults-so to speak-staring all mystified at each other.

  
Raziel joined me in the library as I set a book back on my way to get some sleep. “I wanted to say goodbye. Heaven will be looking for me soon enough.”

  
“Oh, of course. Thanks for stickin’ around as long as you have.” I felt _so _awkward. My new memories told me that I had feelings for the angel but the old ones said we’d only met the once.__

__  
_ _

  
He nodded. “You can always pray to me, you know, when you get everything all sorted.”

  
The angel pointed to his temple and I felt a little guilty. As much as I didn’t know which Charlie I really was, he’d only known the one me and that me wouldn’t be standing across the room during a farewell. So, I did what my body and memories urged me to do by closing the distance and locking my arms around his neck. He stood frozen.

  
“This is the part where you hug back,” I told him, echoing words I’d said during our first embrace.

  
Raziel chuckled and hugged me back. “See you around, Charlie.”

  
“I hope so.” I pulled back and walked away with a smile, and maybe a little added heat to my cheeks. “I’ll work on my melon while your gone.”

  



	7. We Will Rock You

The first day back at my childhood home was an emotional rollercoaster ride. After all, I _had _been the one to incinerate it and- _possibly _-the pack of dogs that greeted us the moment we opened the door. Bear’s thoughts invaded my head.____

  
_You were gone for ages. You just disappeared on me, _the wolfhound told me as he wriggled through my legs. _I couldn’t smell where you went. _____

  
I laughed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

  
My parents and siblings gave me questioning looks. I still hadn’t told them that I’d opened Bear’s neural pathways to teach him human language and link our minds for communication. Though, I suspected that my papa knew.

  
_Pet me, Charlie. You haven’t given me a proper belly rub in forever, _he whined at me.__

  
_That is an exaggeration and you know it, _I told him, bending down to pet him. _I’ve been gone for all of four days. _____

  
_Felt like forty years, _he grumbled.__

  
_I missed you too, Bear cub. ___

  
Bear followed me around the house as I got my self reacquainted with it. The grand tour wasn’t necessary. With my new memories, I could walk through the house blindfolded and tell you exactly where everything was. But that was the problem-the ghost memories. I needed to see, touch, and experience what those memories said was real: the insane amount of photographic evidence of our lives, the trinkets and trophies acquired along the way, the scuffs, dents, and wear around the house that papa left because it was “evidence of a happy home,” the feel of the old books piled and stacked all over because we were a family of inquisitive minds with too few bookshelves, the light aroma of the flowering plants in the back yard, and the sense of _safe _and _home _that just standing inside made me feel.____

  
_How can this be my life? _I questioned, unintentionally sending the thought to Bear.__

  
_What do you mean, Charlie? You’ve always been here, except when you’re not. Wait… is this one of those human new ants?” ___

  
I chuckled. “Nuances,” I intoned for him, “and yeah, a bit.”

  
I froze as another and more terrifying thought occurred to me and quickly shut my mind to Bear’s. _That strange death four states over… what if… what if I’d gone and… and… Djinn? _My blood cooled and Bear became increasingly concerned by the distress in my scent. _How the hell am I supposed to tell without stabbing myself? Of course, an ordinary kitchen knife won’t _kill _me but will it be enough to jar my ass awake if I am in a Djinn dream? _I quickly hashed out a plan and gathered my parents in the kitchen to explain my doubts and thoughts.______

  
“No, you’re not sta-”

  
“Gabe. We can’t stop her.” My dad looked like a kicked puppy with his large sad eyes. “She’ll run and do this anyway. She needs to know that she’s not in a dream and, as much as I don’t like it, here and now with you to heal her is best.”

  
“But-”

  
“No. The more you try to convince her the more you’ll convince that she’s right. Please, believe me. I’ve been in her shoes.”

  
“Dammit, Sam-”

  
Lightning quick and without warning, I snatched the knife from the counter and plunged it into my gut. Fire ripped through my body in the knife’s wake. I heard their shouting and felt my knees hit the floor before I passed out from the pain.

  
I opened my eyes to find myself seated in an elegant, soft-lit study. Dark wooden bookshelves lined all available wall space, the books upon them meticulously organized. In the center of the room sat a dark wooden desk with an open laptop on it and a large leather chair behind it. I sat near the windows, farthest from the door, in one of only two other chairs. The other was occupied by a curly-haired, middle aged man with soft and charming features and bright eyes.

  
“Hello, Charlie.” The man said, his voice soft and his smile warm.

  
“Um… hello?” I replied meekly, slowly reaching for and not finding my angel blade.

  
The man chuckled. “You’re a feisty one, just like your namesake.”

  
“I’m sorry but who are you? Am I dead?”

  
“No, you’re not dead. You were close though, crazy kid. I mean, Djinn? Honestly?”

  
I blushed. “It seemed logical at the time.”

  
He sighed, giving me a sad smile. “I’m your grandfather, Chuck.”

  
“Grandpa Chuck?” I asked in shock. “Weren’t you supposed to be off with your sister?”

  
“She doesn’t mind if I spent a couple of human days observing so long as I return to her.”

  
I cocked an eyebrow and said, “not to be rude but why are you talking to me? There’s a host of angels out there ever awaiting the return of their father.”

  
He shrugged. “Why not you?” Chuck took a moment to think over my question and, finally, said, “my children are more organized and happy under Raziel than they have been in many years. My return would only upset what he’s built… I can’t stay.”

  
“I… see?”

  
“You really don’t.”

  
I nodded. “You got me there, pops.”

  
He quirked an eyebrow at my statement but let it go. Instead, he steepled his fingers under his chin and said, “I interfered. I swore I wouldn’t but how could I not?” With his level of vague, I assumed that he was talking to himself but then he said nothing else.

  
“I think I may have missed something. What did you-”

  
“I got you and that sweet boy playing warrior out of harms way.”

  
“Who? Bobby?” and that’s when it clicked. “You sent us all back.” After a breath, I asked, “but why? Why save us?” _Me? _“Do you know how many angels died that night?”__

  
“Yes and I also know that they are currently alive as the timeline changed. Every angel that you remember killing is still alive, Charlie. That blood is no longer on your hands.”

  
I took a beat to soak that in. Technically, I hadn’t killed anyone, though, I remember killing countless numbers of angels. But he hadn’t answered my question. I tried again. “Why though?”

  
He sighed. “A long time ago, I labeled your kind-your cousins and siblings, nephilim-as abominations and forbade their creation in the future. But you all have done what no others of earth could do. You brought _real _joy and _true _love to the Winchester brother’s lives.” He leaned forward to stage whisper, “don’t tell anyone but the Winchesters are my favorites.” He leaned back and continued normally, “I mean, those boys have been through Hell, Heaven, and every other kind of torture that life could have possibly thrown at them and, at the end of it all-bloodied, beaten, and scarred-they pulled though with the ability to _love. _” His smile grew wider as he continued, “it’s an improbability. They beat the odds. How could I let the testament to their love die at the hands of my children?”______

  
Chuck looked like he wanted to go on but my anger got the better of me. I stood and started to pace. “Hold on! You let the freaking _apocalypse _happen! You let Lucifer ravage the earth! Not to mention the plagues and wars that have been waged, among all of the other atrocities in the world but this? The Winchester brother’s _love _can’t be fucked with? We are _not _more important than those things-than the lives of all those slaughtered innocents.”______

  
My grandfather smiled, despite my angry and crazy-rude ranting. “You’re just like them. A warrior for good in the fight against evil and you believe so little of yourself. Why is that?” he asked, avoiding everything I’d just said.

  
I crossed my arms. “Aren’t you supposed to be omniscient? Shouldn’t you know that already?” I challenged-in retrospect-like a dumbass.

  
Cool as a cucumber, Chuck lifted a manifested cup of tea to his lips with an “and? Say it out loud, child.”

  
I huffed. “Where was my papa, huh? I prayed and prayed and begged for _years _for him to come back to us-to me.” Tears welled up in my eyes and threatened to spill over. “If I was worth a damn then where the hell was he? Was my dad really the only thing keeping him with us? And if my papa can’t be bothered with me then why should I believe that anyone else would want to?” The tears, finally, fell, streaming down my face as I sank back into the chair.__

  
“Gabriel was still mourning the loss of his grace mate. Angels don’t feel time like you do-like humans do-and someday you won’t either. He probably hadn’t considered that so much of your time had passed.”

  
“That doesn’t excuse him for abandoning his daughters when they needed him the most.”

  
“No, it doesn’t.” Chuck shook his head. “But he wasn’t idle in his mourning. Gabriel hunted down every molecule of your father across the cosmos. The grace laced with each one calling out to him like a beacon. His path was to put his mate back together where yours was to protect and defend your family-to become strong for the hunt. Because while you Winchesters are my favorites and my heart hurts for you, your work isn’t done. Your family will most likely never be done, so long as there are monsters in the world.”

  
“So, no matter how much we sacrifice, my bloodline will always have to fight your battles?”

  
“If not you, then who? Who would you have take your place? Go on. Choose a family.”

  
“Freakin’ anyone!”

  
He tsked. “You don’t mean that.” and damn it all if that wasn’t the truth.

  
I sighed, my anger deflating. “No, I don’t. But I don’t want to have to watch my family get ripped apart anymore than I already have. Is this changed timeline real? Are my parents and uncles and Raziel really alive?”

  
“Gabriel and Castiel were successful in the retrieval of their mates’ atoms. So yes, they are all very much real and alive.”

  
My eyebrows pulled together in confusion. “Castiel? But he…”

  
“Died? No. He fought until you all had escaped and were safely in the bunker and then he too went in search of his mate. Otherwise, Dean would not have made it back into the timeline. Once lost they are _very _difficult to find, even for a timeline divergence.”__

  
I sat, absorbing and trying to process all that he told me and for a long while we sat in silence. Uncle Cas had lived. They didn’t so much _abandon _us as go off on the longest, craziest damned scavenger hunt. I sighed when my head started to hurt thinking about it. “So… I hunt. That’s my _destiny _?”____

  
“Well, if nothing else, it’s your family’s business.”

  
“Alone?”

  
He raised his hands as if to say “Who knows?” and verbally said, “that, my beautiful granddaughter, is entirely up to you.”

  
He and I both knew that I would ask Mary and she’d probably decline the idea and who could blame her? So, in truth, we both knew that I would hunt alone. But I would always have a home to come back to.

  
“Thank you for giving us the chance to change our lives.”

  
“Thank you,” he countered, “for showing my eldest the meaning of love. He always did as asked but never grasped emotions quite like I’d hoped my angels would.”

  
I drew in a sharp breath and clutched my chest in mock-astonishment. “Are you saying, All Mighty One, that there are flaws in your work?”

  
He chuckled and shrugged. “Nothing and no one is perfect, child. All we can do is keep fighting.” Chuck stood and opened his arms. “Now, come hug me, Charlie. You have to wake up soon.”

  
_I’m actually shocked that he hasn’t smote-smited? Eh, who cares-me after my rudeness. _I thought this as I embraced my grandfather.__

  
While hugging me, he said, “your parents have given me a lot of sass over the years. Dean actually told me to ‘cool it’ while I was singing in the shower. They’re still walking around.”

  
I snorted. “Uncle Dean poking a being far more powerful than himself? Yeah, seems legit… Bye, grandpa Chuck.”

  
“See you around, Charlie.”

  
In the last week, I had woken up alone in so many new places that it startled me to have Bear pressed up against my side and my parents slumped against each other in a gaudy love seat near _my _bed in _my _room. The first rays of sunlight peaked through the open curtains. Papa held a finger to his lips which meant that my dad was still sleeping. I frowned, thinking about the aches he’d have from laying like that all night.____

  
_Papa will soothe them, _I assured myself, touching the healed wound in my abdomen. Papa gave me his disapproving “I can’t believe you did that” look as Bear stirred. _Are you awake now, Charlie? _he asked sounding surprisingly sleepy.____

  
_Yeah, Bear cub, I’m awake. ___

  
_Ok. No more sharp, pointy things for you. _He gently nuzzled my arm. _I thought I’d never talk to you again. I don‘t want to lose you. _____

  
My eyes stung with tears. _I’m so sorry. I won’t do anything like that again. I was stupid but I’m better now. I had some help. ___

  
_You could ask me next time. I won’t lead you away. My sniffer is never wrong. ___

  
I didn’t have the heart to correct him as I chuckled quietly aloud. _I hear ya, Bear cub… you and me against the world. ___

  
_Can it be you and me against breakfast first? I’m starving. ___

  
My grin widened and I scratched his ears. _Hellz yes. ___

  
Papa gently woke his mate shortly after and, with a hug and some reassurance that I wouldn’t try that again, my dad went to go make breakfast. Bear followed him, leaving papa and me in my room surrounded by a heavy deafening silence. 

  
“You-”

  
“I’m sorry.” I interrupted him. “I had to know.”

  
He blew out a large breath. “You’re giving me grey hair, kiddo.”

  
I smirked. “You earned that grey hair all on your own. Do remind me, what was the creation of the earth like again?”

  
“Longer than six human days,” he snorted. Silence fell for a brief moment before he surged through. “I sensed my dad’s power…”

  
I rubbed the back of my neck, nervously, remembering that I wasn’t the only one with daddy issues. “Uh… yeah. He, uh, gave me the quit-being-a-dumbass speech.”

  
“Ah,” the archangel said, nodding, and let it go. “There’s been something I’ve been meaning to ask… the memories from your life before… do you want me to erase them?”

  
I sat stunned, rooted to the bed. I could see the advantages in that: never doubting my reality, never remembering the loss and pain and betrayal. But the downsides? I’d lose all the happy-or as happy as we could be, considering-moments that my siblings and cousins and I shared. I’d lose the pride in watching them succeed at the things that I’d taught them. I’d lose the days of warrior Bobby and how he always had my back.

  
Memories aren’t like trinkets, once broken or thrown away there was no replacing them. As horrible and miserable as parts of that life had been, there was no way that I could give it up. I needed the memories... they were my strength… for the hunt. Where that life made me strong and hard, this life gave me hope and love. No, I needed them because both lives were mine and me and, as messed up as it sounded, I was suddenly ok with that. 

  
“Thank you, papa, but no. They’re my memories and they should stay that way.”

  
He nodded again. “I plan to ask the girls later.”

  
“It’s their choice,” I agreed.

  
Three weeks later, Uncle Cas gave birth to a boy who they named Jack. All of us were gathered at their farm to properly welcome the newest nephilim into the family. While the baby napped, Uncle Dean and my dad set to cooking while the rest of us went off to abate our quick-to-sprout boredom. I found Mary in the garage working on her father’s work truck.

  
“Hey, Charlie, hand me that wrench, will ya?” Mary called from under the truck, pointing to a box full of wrenches.

  
With a shrug, I handed her the topmost wrench. Seemed to do the trick, she didn’t sigh or ask for the box. I sat down next to the tire she lay behind. 

  
“So, I have a question and there’s no need to agree-it’s just a thought but-”

  
She rolled herself from under the truck, looked me dead in the eye, and said, “we should go hunting, like our dad’s use to do.”

  
I smiled and pulled that grease monkey into a hug. “I thought you’d say no.” I sounded so relieved. 

  
“No?” She laughed. “Between the shit life we lead and the new memories of our dad’s teaching us all about it, how was that even an option?”

  
Mary and I made our announcement at dinner. Our family accepted it as if they’d expected nothing less and maybe they hadn’t. Maybe we were just that transparent. Our dad’s may not have been happy per se but they had been the ones to teach us and they weren’t forbidding us from going. Uncle Dean surprised us all by tossing a set of keys to Mary.

  
“Baby’s been idle too long. She belongs out on the road, saving-”

  
“People, hunting things, the family business,” we all recited with him.

  
He smiled. “Yeah, just take care of her and bring her home once in a while and you,” he pointed to me, “don’t let that mutt of yours tear up the leather in the backseat.”

  
My dad scoffed, giving his brother a mock-glare. “Oh! She gets permission to have a dog in the car? What happened to ‘don’t take joints from a guy named Don and there’s no dogs in the car’?”

  
Uncle Dean looked impressed. “You remember that?”

  
_Road trip! _Bear gloated from his position just outside the dining room.__

  
“She’s prettier,” Uncle Dean said with a shrug, answering his brother‘s question, and making us all laugh.

  
It took another week, of my dad teaching us how to hack credit card companies and surveillance cameras, her dad teaching us how to make fake IDs with a little help from my papa(he snagged a few up-to-date badges), and both of them teaching us their top ten rules of hunting, for us to be _allowed _to leave. I think it was little bit of anxiety with their “babies” leaving the “nest.”__

  
Uncle Dean handed me a journal, with their rules written on the first page, saying that we’d probably fill that journal with our hunts faster than we’d like. I opened the journal to the page as Mary drove us toward our first case after all of the tearful goodbyes. It read:

  
_The Winchester Commandments_  
-Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts their cake hole  
-Finish what you start  
-Never hit the same town twice  
-Always pick a corner room on the ground floor at a hotel-for a quick getaway  
-Always use fake ID  
-Kill as many evil sons of bitches as you can  
-Never surrender to evil, always keep fighting  
-Honor you family and your car  
-Family don’t end in blood  
-You can’t save everyone-not for lack of trying  
*Bonus*  
-Don’t give family cake and call it pie  
-Always watch each other’s backs

  
You can always call if you need help, that’s what we’re here for.  


Be safe, ladies.  


DW…SW  



End file.
